"Some of my poems," Nissim Ezekiel says, "are obviously written for personal therapeutic purposes." Therapeutic means connected with healing or having a good general effect on the body or the mind. Ezekiel like some eminent poets wrote some of his outstanding poems stating in explicit terms or by implication his personal problems or predicaments with the aim of obtaining some sort of emotional relief. R. Parthasarthy points out that Ezekiel's poetry is the work of a keen, analytical mind trying to explore, and communicate, on a personal level, feelings of loss and deprivation. Thus, his poetry performs a cathartic purpose, "Case Study", "Enterprise", "Background Casually", "A Time to Change", "Encounter" etc., are some of his famous poems which have a therapeutic significance. "Case Study" is truly a study of unfinished man who in all probability is the poet himself. It is the portrait of a man who could not really make up his mind about his career or his mission in life.
“Beginning with a foolish love affairAfter common school and rotten college,He had the patient will put not the flairTo climb with quick assault the envied stair;Messed around instead with useless knowledge,
He was endowed with a fickle and wavering mind and could not follow the example of his teachers who never failed in their assessment of their deeds.
He realised that "his marriage was the worst mistake of all. Although he loved his children, he spoiled them with too much love and too much disciplinary control over them. So his life was damned in that domestic game.
He tried various jobs. He was an unpractical man who conceived impossible projects which he afterwards renounced. "He never moved, unless he formed something he might have loved." One day the speaker advised him to change radically his style of living and to apply whatever intelligence he had:
"The pattern will remain, unless you breakIt with a sudden jerk; but use you headNot all returned as heroes who had fledIn wanting both to have and eat the cakeNot all who fail are counted with the fake."
In his famous poem "Enterprise" Ezekiel deals with the problem of split personality. The poet, it seems faces two divergent pulls-the existential enigma on the one hand and the poetic enigma on the other. The poet's self confronts the fallen world and stands in ironic contrast to the ideal world. Hc feels that in suffocating cultural ethos of the city and the repressive social codes of morality in the modern world man does not find freedom to grow and develop independently. His perception is subjugated and distorted. In this poem Ezekiel generalizes his own repressive social codes of morality in the modern world man does not find freedom to grow and develop independently. His perception is subjugated and distorted. In this poem Ezekiel generalizes his own feelings of frustration, loss, despair and deprivation in the world. Commenting on "Enterprise" K.R.S. Iyengar remarks: "In a sense, of course, it is man's destiny to be forever evolving, and hence to be unfinished. There is a movement, a growth, something is gained, but something is lost also. If the intellect acquires a sharper edge, something else, perhaps imagination, perhaps hope or self-confidence-suffers in consequence. Between the motion and the act falls the shadow, and so poems like "urban" and "Enterprise become images of frustration".
Thus, in this poem Ezekiel sought the psychological relief which results from revealing his troubles and frustrations to an intimate, sympathetic friend: “Enterprise" has, thus, become a metaphor for, a symbol or an allegory of the human condition on earth.
A number of people, including the poet, start on a pilgrimage. They begin with courage, determination and self-confidence in order to achieve a lofty purpose. As they travel onwards the sun heats down upon them but they patiently and courageously withstand the heat of the sun. They observe everything very minutely around them and put down copious notes:
“On things the peasants sold and bought.The way of serpents and of goats,Three cities where a sage had taught.”
This is an allegorical way of saying that a group of intellectuals, including the poet, were engaged in an intellectual, elaborate and cooperative exercise to achieve the highest possible proficiency, in not complete perfection, in their art.
But soon their idealism and single-mindedness of purpose vanishes into nothingness. Their differences come up. They quarrel over trivial matters. They cannot unanimously decide "how to cross a desert patch." One of their companions, "Whose stylish prose was quite the best of all our batch" leaves them angrily. Their enterprise suffers from discord and disunity. The poet says in utter disgust. "A shadow falls on us, and grows." The poet allegorically depicts the clash of egos here. The ego of the best of these intellectuals does not allow him to keep company with others in their research, and so he quits their company in order to plough his lonely furrow.
Their differences and disunity reach another stage. They forget their high ideals which inspired them for their noble enterprise. Now they are divided into small groups. Each group attacks the other. They lose their way. "A section claimed its liberty to leave the group." They fail to face the hard realities of life and take refuge in escape and withdrawal. In this state of utter confusion and bewilderment the poet tries to pray. The leader of the enterprise says that they are quite near the sea. A change has now come over the travellers. They notice nothing as they move on. They ignore the meaning of thunder. They are deprived of common needs like soap. Some of them are entirely exhausted and are no longer able to withstand the strain of journey. Allegorically speaking it means that the intellectuals are unnerved by the rigours of the enterprise and forget all about their noble mission.
At last, the travellers reach their destination but now they hardly know why they are there. They find no purpose in their enterprise. Now they feel that their "deeds were neither great nor rare" and "Home is where we have to gather grace." Allegorically it means that the travellers finally realise that it was not necessary for them to flee their home (namely the city) and the mission of life can be achieved by reconciling themselves to their environment and not by escaping from it. We should not escape from life but we should escape into life.
The last line of the poem—"Home is where we have together grace." -Contains a timeless moral. We must not escape from life's sordid realities. We must gracefully accept the limitations of our worldly existence and should strive to do our best within these limitations. The words "home" and "grace" are highly symbolical and suggestive. "Home" implies the reality principle which must be accepted with a spirit of resignation and calm cheerfulness and we should make the best (grace) out of it. Acceptance of reality would impart meaning and grace to life. We should never forget our commitment to the acceptance of reality K. N. Daruwalla remarks: "The last time also reflects some of Ezekiel’s commitments to well-defined attitudes. The first is to stay where he is. He seeks his identity in the country (India) and its incongruities. He is basically an urban poet, the city spilling over his verse not as cosmetic but as an organic growth."
"Background Casually" is also written for personal therapeutic purpose, It is an autobiographical poem in which Ezekiel graphically describes some of the experiences of his life from his boyhood onwards. When he grew up he went to school where, being the only Jew, he suffered from communal and religious discrimination, Ina Roman Catholic school he was callously and inhumanly treated by other students whether they were Hindus, Muslims or Christians : He was "a mugging Jew among the wolves."
At the age of twenty two he was sent to London for higher study with the help of a friend who paid the fare. He suffered acute poverty in London:
“PhilosophyPoverty, and poetry, threeCompanions shared my basement room.”
As he was extremely poor, he worked as a menial servant on an English Cargo ship which took French guns and mortar shells to Indo-China. He "scrubbed the decks/And learned to laugh again at home."
On his return to India he was a total failure. His study of poetry added to his "Own exasperation." It was difficult for him to adjust in India because he had been treated with contempt. His father had told him that—
“All Hindus areLike that, my father used to sayWhen someone talked too loudly, orKnocked or the door like the devil."
Ezekiel took to writing poetry. Opportunities is made him a poet. He remained dedicated to poetry as profession. Wisdom consists in making the best use of one's opportunities. He makes the best use of his inner tensions and frustrations, and also of the failures and difficulties that life has in store for him.
Ezekiel is committed to his chosen profession, poetry. He is also committed to India and to Bombay, the city of his choice. The acceptance of the Indian reality is the Central theme of "Background Casually."
“The Indian landscape sears my eyes.I have become a part of itTo be observed by foreignersThey say that I am singular,Their letters overstate the case.I have made my commitments now.This is one; to stay where I am,As others choose to give themselvesIn some remote and backward place.My backward place is where I am.”
Ezekiel affirms his commitment to stay on in India where he at present is: An analysis of some of the major poems of Ezekiel reveals that they are obviously written for personal therapeutic purpose. In his poems he arrives at a solution to his predicament, thus achieving some sort of relief for his poetic and other tensions.